Weekly Update #206: Rei Sprite Progress

In last week’s blog post, I gave you a look at the progress for Shinketsu‘s sprite variations. This week, we’re going to take a look at our forensics expert Rei Shirayuki, since she is actually the next character to be introduced in the game, right after our weird doc!

Rei is kind of the exact opposite of Shinketsu. Whereas the latter is a very expressive character who is going to show a wide range of emotions, ranging from serious to comical, Rei is a character whose emotions play out more on the inside rather than the outside. So, in a sense, she is a bit similar to Raiko in SHINRAI.

Consequently, she currently has less sprite variations than the other characters, but she will gain more the deeper we get into the story. Once Keiichi/the player manages to get closer to her, she will open up a little, revealing a bit more about herself and getting more visibly emotional in the process.

For now, however, she only has a couple of standard expressions like the ones you can see above. From left to right we have: Perplexed, Happy and Worried. That’s not all, however. Rei is someone who takes her job very seriously, which is yet another aspect in which she greatly differs from Shinketsu. So one pose variation you will see from her a lot is her salute:

Once again, everything you see here is still subject to change. Although it won’t change drastically, there is a chance I might make a few tiny adjustments before I send everything to Natsu for proper coloring and shading.

Anyway, except for one more pose variation for each of them, Shinketsu and Rei are almost ready to perform in their very first scene in-game! I will continue working on the remaining assets now, like sound effects for example, so that we can start coding said scene as soon as possible. Speaking of sound, however…

I have uploaded another new GENBA no Kizuna track over on Patreon! This one goes into more of a horror direction and will be used for the initial body discovery scene. I think our composer Solo did a great job at creating a really scary sounding piece!

Patrons can also get a first look at the July artwork now, so be sure to check out Natsu’s sketch as well!

With that said, it’s time to come to a close! Please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care! :3